The players are auditioning for spots on the U.S. National Junior Team that will take part in the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship, Dec. 26, 2014-Jan. 5, 2015, in Montreal and Toronto, Canada.

"As a staff, we have been very pleased with the effort and competitiveness of the 42 players in camp," said Jim Johannson, USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations and the general manager of the 2015 U.S. National Junior Team. " The three remaining games this week provide an opportunity for additional assessment of the players that are staying. We will continue to evaluate the players released today throughout the fall.”

Ian McCoshen (Hudson, Wis./Boston College), who was a member of the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team, will no longer be participating in this week’s camp for precautionary reasons.

Among those staying are goaltender Thatcher Demko (San Diego, Calif./Boston College); defensemen Will Butcher (Sun Prairie, Wis./University of Denver) and Steve Santini (Mahopac, N.Y./Boston College); and forwards Jack Eichel (North Chelmsford, Mass./U.S. National Under-18 Team) and Hudson Fasching (Burnsville, Minn./University of Minnesota), who were members of the 2014 U.S. National Junior Team that played in Malmo, Sweden.

The trimmed Team USA roster will play Sweden on Wednesday (Aug. 6), Finland on Thursday (Aug. 7) and Czech Republic on Saturday (Aug. 9). All games are being played at the Olympic Center's USA Rink.

NOTES: Use the hashtag #NJEC on Twitter to join the conversation surrounding camp ... The online home for the 2014 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp, complete with rosters, schedules, stats and news, is available here ... All games from the 2014 USA Hockey National Junior Evaluation Camp are being streamed live and are available on-demand on usahockey.fasthockey.com ... The 2015 U.S. National Junior Team will be selected following a pre-tournament camp in December to be held in Boston ... At the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship, the U.S. will compete in a group with Finland, Germany, Slovakia and Canada. … Mark Osiecki (Burnsville, Minn.) is head coach of the 2015 U.S. National Junior Team. He is currently an assistant coach for the American Hockey League's Rockford IceHogs ... The assistant coaches for Team USA are Don Granato (Downers Grove, Ill./U.S. National Under-18 Team), Kevin Patrick (Schenectady, N.Y./Univ. of Vermont) and Mike Ayers (Hingham, Mass./Boston College) ... Adam Nightingale (Cheboygan, Mich./Shattuck St. Mary's School) is the video coordinator ... Jim Johannson (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey's assistant executive director of hockey operations, is serving as the general manager of Team USA for the sixth consecutive year ... USA Hockey's international council, chaired by Gavin Regan (Potsdam, N.Y.), vice president of USA Hockey, has oversight responsibilities for all U.S. national teams.